Andreas joined Apr 22, 2011

First Ihave to apologies for the long time it’s been since I’ve made my last post!

I can seethat quite some people have been visiting my site to look for updates, and I’m sorry to have let you all down.

But now youwill have to wait no longer, ‘cause here is my new post – a review of Empire: Total War.

I know thatI have previously been reviewing mods and games found here on Desura, which has
made it all very easy for you to be able to get the mods yourself, but the games that I’ve been playing on Desura are actually limited to Mount&Blade and Mount&Blade: Warband. Therefore I have decided to expand my horizon to some other games out there.

I have long been a big – massive – fan of the Total War-series, and therefore I thought that their games might be a good place to start, and with a game time at 250+ hours, Empire: Total War was a good place to start.

For those who do not know how the Total War-series are I’ll just give you a quick intro.

Those who are familiar with the games can just skip down to the actual review;

Intro:

The Total War-series are a realistic turn based strategy-games. Set in different eras and locations ranging from The Roman Empire, through Medieval Europe and 16th century Japan. You can choose between a large variety of factions to play, and you primary goal is to rule a certain amount of provinces and areas before a specific time. The series let you control the battles that you encounter; controlling you men as an on-field general would do it. This gives you a great sense of control of the game, being through the economy as well as the military.

Actual review:

So here we go!

The game is the fifth game in the series, not counting expansion packs, and is set, primarily in Europe in the 18th century. You start out with choosing between a wide list of factions, including Great Britain, France, Prussia (Germany), Russia and The Ottoman Empire as well as The Maratha Confederacy in India. From here on you are able to change the destiny of European history. The game features a large range of different troops and special units.

The game follows the series in the way it should, and I would encourage you to try them out. Bear in mind that Empire, was released in 2009 and many other games before that, so graphics can be found out there, but the game experience speaks for itself, let alone the time that can be spent in-game. You can easily play
the same nation more than once and will never really have the same playthrough. There are a ton of in-game possibilities. This could be missions, e.g. that you would have to take a specific province or city. It could be historical events, the steam pump being invented or the birth of a nation – The United States of
America.

A major aspect that has been brought into Empire, that is different form many of the previous games, is the aspect of trade. Trade has been there before, but as seen in history, trade has a great importance in the European economy in the 18th century. You are able to trade across the globe, from America to India to the
straights of Madagascar, and there is a great bit of money to be made on being the biggest supplier of a specific resource. And money has a great importance in the world.

Another major change made from the previous games, is the way that battles are fought. A new invention has been made in the world, the gun. Gunpowder has been the most efficient way of killing another man, and infantry is no longer a man carrying a sword, he is a man with a musket. This is, in my opinion a great step forward, and a setback.

The good thing would be that the game has moved into a new era. New challenges are made through the way armies fight. Numbers are no long the factor that wins a fight and the winner is the one with the biggest and best gun. This is a fun thing to play around with. But the setback might be the same thing. Being able to kill of thousands of Indians in America with only a handful of rangers might seem fun at first, but the challenges are smaller. It is a lot easier to win battles, and there is not always the same amount of tactics in a battle, when you are simply able to shoot you’re able to shoot the enemy before they get close to you. I fell that this takes a bit of the strategy out of the game.

But even though I feel that a bit of the strategy has gone out of this strategy game, there is still a great fun in the game and many hours can easily be put into it. And I wouldn’t be writing this long a review about the game if I didn’t like it.

The game brings a lot of new things to the game and that is a great feature and it is defiantly worth looking into.

There are several DLC packs with new units and even an expansion pack, giving you the opportunity to play as the Indian tribes in America. All this simply ads to the experience of the game.

The game scores high on my list of all-time favorite games. You should bear in mind that being a fan of strategy games is a big plus, but if you put a bit of heart into the game it will carry you a long way.

I highly recommend the game, and it is almost a guaranteed satisfaction, so go get it.

There are links to the official game site and forum, the price may vary, depending on where you buy it, but keep your eye out for a nice scoop;

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